Need for Speed Underground 2

You want 40 hours of racing? EA delivers the most ambitious game in the series.

If you're familiar with the Need for Speed series, then the way these cars handle won't surprise. There is a good mixture of arcade and realistic handling in them all, but these cars are more realistic, more "weighty," and less twitchy. The result is that powerslides and drifts work better, and more skill is required to drive them well. Unfortunately, in order for most of these rides to reach any satisfying levels of speed, you'll need to seriously upgrade them. While EA's other racer, Burnout 3: Takedown, is a different kind of game, it needs to be said that no racing game this year, including NFSU2, comes close to equaling its sense of speed. So, no, it's not as fast as Burnout 3. Nothing is.

On the other hand, even the worst cars here are capable of cool tricks, drifts, and slick powerslides. There are few, if any racers in which you can pull into a 180 turn with the brake, slam down the e-brake, and slide into a continuous rubber-burning 360 peelout. You can literally just pull off donuts all day on any main street. It's sweet.

Unlike several previous games in this series, there is no car damage (and no drivers in the vehicles), so driving can often careen into an exercise in laziness and dereliction. It's pretty sad. The biggest consequence revolves around NOS. If you've bought NOS, you can then earn more by pulling off moves -- powerslides, avoiding oncoming traffic, pulling off a clean section, getting air, etc. If you smash into other cars and beat up your vehicle, you'll lose NOS. The biggest issue with the default NOS is that it's used up so damn fast. But you can tune it to your liking. Also, avoiding traffic earns you more NOS than a more skilled trick like powerslides, which seems wrong.

One of the best parts of playing NFSU2 is its thoroughly conceived customization sections. There are hundreds of exterior parts to apply to your ride and they're all easy to apply. The range of parts is excessive -- spoilers, hoods, siding, mufflers, rims, spinners, window tinting, funky trunks, speed dials, neon undercolors, five layers of decals, etc. -- it goes on and on. Nearly all parts are unlocked due to winning races, and the newer, cooler version can be added as you get deeper and deeper into the game. They all contribute to your Visual Rating, so they thankfully tie into the best goals -- winning races.

Your car = art? Just don't overdo the tear decals, buddy.

The under-the-hood tuning is also excessively good. Unlike last year's rather trite upgrade system, this one not only exists, but you can tune your car in the Dyno Room and see instant realistic results. Street Racing Syndicate did this first, but I think NFSU2 does it better. That's mainly because the car can be tested on a track and then adjusted on the fly and brought back to dyno test again, and all of it is executed quickly and easily.

For the PS2, Xbox and PC, the online game is solid if predictable. You can get online with your custom rides and race with as many as five other opponents simultaneously. There is very little slowdown, the cars drive extremely well, and the voice chat is as good as it gets. All of the race types are playable online too. The GameCube version is not online.

Graphics Visually, NFSU2 improves upon its excellent looking original in every way, plus several little bonuses sweeten the deal. At least that's true on the Xbox. The PS2 is a slight step down, thoug it's still quite good looking, and the GameCube is a big step down, with a slower framerate that affects gameplay. All of the consoles support widescreen 480p.

The diversity of the city is impressive in both its art direction and architecture. Bayview is an imaginary city, but if you look close it's a compilation of several cities you know. There are bridges reminiscent of Seattle, a radio tower that looks like it's been stolen straight off Twin Peaks, SF, and the city center area could easily be any major metropolitan center. Some houses in Beacon Hill and Jackson Heights look like they've been snatched out of the Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

The lighting is excellent. NFSU had many dark patches, and this one makes up for that with cats eyes and better sign placement. The cars all show realtime reflections off windows and exteriors, and EA has made sure there is some kind of Chinatown section filled with bright flickering lights. The game still takes place all at night again, but it's now during several times of the night. So you've got early evening when the sun it setting, late night when the sky is pitch black, and early dawn. The artistically handled skies and gorgeously imagined clouds help bring an additional layer of realism and beauty to the game.